No sooner had Jay finished gathering a sufficient amount of wind than Kai arrived, surrounded by his ever-active red glow.
"You sure do run fast, but I've caught up with you... wait, where's the other one?" Kai said, realizing that Jay was missing his companion mid-sentence.
"Ah, your friend got up and tried to attack me, but Vilda got up too, so they're kind of busy now." Jay replied, being in a good mood, "But don't worry, I'll keep you company, that's what you wanted all along, right?"
*Swoosh!*
As Jay finished speaking, he launched himself at Kai, who despite being taken by surprise, managed to get his arms in front of him.
*Bam!*
The collision was audible, with Kai backing up a bit but being able to withstand Jay's kick, taking the opportunity to try and grab him.
While he had to admit that Jay was strong and would probably bring him a great deal of trouble if left on his own, if he managed to grab him, then his victory would be assured.
The reason for this confidence came from nothing more than his esper ability, which increased his physical capabilities the closer he got to his opponent, being able to physically dominate the vast majority of espers.
It was a tricky ability to use at times, but Kai had mastered it to a point where he was the terror of espers in a hand-to-hand fight.
If one added to that the fact that his fighting style was based on grappling, wrenching and so on, one could get an idea of how lethal he could be.
Therefore, if he managed to grab Jay, even if he had more stamina than he had shown, the result would be the same.
Then, moving at considerable speed, Kai then grabbed Jay's leg.
"I'VE GOT YOU!" Shouted Kai, a smile forming on his face.
However, despite having the upper hand at this point, as he was able to catch Jay, Jay did not appear nervous at all, instead, he seemed to have become even calmer, which caused him an uneasy feeling.
The next moment, with the surrounding wind wrapping itself around Jay's body, a current began to form, starting at his head and going all the way down the rest of his body until it reached the leg that Kai was holding.
*SWOOSH!*
"Argh!"
When the wind made contact with Kai's hands, instead of it dissipating, it actually continued to swirl, only much more violently, cutting into his skin and forcing him to let out a whimper of pain.
But this, instead of making him let go, only made Kai's grip grow tighter, "Bastard!"
At this point, the grip was really starting to become painful, but despite this, Jay still didn't seem to be in a hurry to break free.
"I'll be sure to hit you back twice as hard now!" Kai shouted before pouncing on Jay, taking the fight to the ground.
Without waiting any longer, Kai immediately moved to get a better grip on Jay, looking for a position where he could knock him out or at least immobilize him until Nico arrived.
He had already repeated this process several times with other espers, and in each of those cases, thanks to his mastery of close combat, he achieved the result he wanted in less than a minute.
However...
"!"
At the same time that Kai started to move, he could feel something terrifying... and that was that Jay's body was incredibly hard.
His body at this moment was getting a huge strength boost thanks to his ability and how close he was to Jay, but even with that, he couldn't move it one bit!
"...What's wrong, weren't you the one who wanted to have contact? Let's have contact then!" Jay said, wrapping his arms around Kai's torso to prevent him from escaping.
"Let go!!" Kai shouted.
Unfortunately for him, as angry as he was, he simply could not overpower Jay in terms of physical strength.
What was more, little by little, the more time passed, not only was he failing to break free, but he was losing the slight advantage he had in the beginning, increasing his anger and causing another feeling to appear within him... helplessness.
Although he was confident in his ability, there were certain things he knew very well he couldn't do even if he tried his best, making him feel powerless, and for him, the memories that brought back that feeling were all the encounters he had with pugilists.
In each of the encounters he had with this type of supers, it was as if the world was reminding him that no matter how superior he was in technique, he could do nothing in the face of pure power, at least not with his esper ability.
For that reason he always avoided getting into trouble with pugilists, because he knew that his ability would be almost useless against them.
He thought that as long as he didn't run into one of them, he would at least have a chance of victory.
But at this moment...
"A-agh!"
Without being able to do much, the position of both of them had changed, with Jay having positioned himself behind Kai and putting him in a headlock.
"Y-You, why... why the hell are you so strong?!" Kai asked, his ability working at its limit in order to withstand Jay's strength.
Slightly releasing his grip enough to let him speak, Jay then replied, bringing his mouth close to Kai's ear, "You're looking at it from the wrong side, it's not that I'm strong, it's that you're just... too weak."
"..."
Faced with this statement, Kai had nothing to say, and while he wasn't denying it, he wasn't affirming it either.
"You know I'm right, otherwise why would you be involved with these two?" Jay continued, using a soft but clear tone of voice, the same one he used when he wanted to influence a person, "You can't beat me, we're playing on your terms and you're still losing, but that's not all, your friend is taking a beating from mine as we speak, as for the other one, I think you know what happened the last time I met him..."
"However you look at it... your group is the inferior one."
For those last words, Jay not only changed the tone of his voice to make it deeper than usual, but slightly increased the strength of his grip, to emphasize his point.
And of course, all this with a large amount of parasites inside Kai.
"...Why are you telling me all this...?" Kai asked, with Jay's words having had a visible effect, as he stopped resisting Jay's grip.
"Because it's what you need to hear, because it's the little nudge you needed to get you to recognize the truth, after all, between the two of us, the one who knows best that following those two is a dead end is not me...but you, isn't it?"
Thanks to his little ones, Jay had already managed to identify Kai's emotions at this point, and what occupied most of his concerns was the regret of having joined with Tom and Nico to confront him.
Mixed into that regret were also feelings of dissatisfaction with the other two, such as the condescension they both felt for him, always ordering him to do things and almost never acknowledging him as part of the team, but as someone beneath them.
Although neither of them said it out loud, Kai could sense those things, causing them to build up inside him as a feeling of enormous dissatisfaction.
It was undoubtedly the most information Jay had ever received from one person when using his little ones, but for him, this was to be expected, after all, there were 30 parasites inside Kai.
Of these 30, not one of them was trying to assimilate the esper's ability, but under Jay's command, they were taking it upon themselves to influence him to their fullest capacity while acting as information transmitters.
Thanks to this, Kai's will had been greatly weakened, leaving him exposed to Jay's convincing.
"Therefore, I'll make you an offer... work with me." Jay said, releasing the grip he had on Kai and standing up.
Kai on the other hand, still lay on the ground for a few more seconds, his vision blurred and a tired expression on his face.
It was clear that whether it was Jay's words or what his little ones were doing inside him, it was having quite an effect.
After a few seconds passed, as he sat down on the floor, Kai replied, "I...I...don't... want to betray Tom..."
"...Hoh."
This response was unexpected to Jay, who now filled with curiosity as to the reason for this, decided that perhaps he would try to have a deeper connection with Kai.
Thereupon, Jay then sat down in front of Kai, reaching out both hands to place them on either side of the latter's head.
While he could have done it the same way he did with Faith, by clasping his hands together, this was not a simple exchange of energy, but something much more personal, so to speak.
And even if he couldn't get Kai to accept his offer, thanks to the fact that he was already under his influence, he didn't put up any resistance to the contact.
Without waiting any longer, checking his vitality radar one last time to make sure they were alone, Jay then activated the system's ability, "Mental Network", connecting with his little ones inside Kai's body.
***
While Jay was dealing with Kai, Vilda with Tom and Nico was trying to remember the way Kai had gone, the young woman who had entered the forest was walking through the trees.
Bending down to pick up a couple of leaves, instructions on how to get to a certain place ran through her head again.
'Indeed... it seems that I got lost...' Thought the young woman, Faith, her attitude changing to one of defeat.
Originally, the moment she saw the photo the receptionist at the training center had shown her, her first thought was to warn Jay, the guy in the photo was his friend after all.
However, she had no way of communicating with him, not to mention that she really knew almost nothing about him, except for the fact that he was an esper and that they shared most classes at the academy.
Therefore, this option had been ruled out.
The next thing that occurred to her was that perhaps she could warn a teacher, but after considering the consequences of this, which could even end in both parties being expelled, she decided it would be best not to involve the academy.
Finally, the alternative she opted for was nothing more than to go to the place herself and rescue him, which, apart from being a good deed since no one deserved such treatment, would also give her an excuse to meet Jay.
Though of course, the latter was an extra detail, the real important thing was rescuing a fellow classmate in distress!
Or at least that was what Faith had been repeating to herself every so often.
Thus, inquiring for more details from the receptionist, Faith learned that the place they were at was actually not a random location, but a popular spot among students to have a "friendly confrontation".
Of course, this was simply another nicer way of calling the clandestine fights they held, ones that went beyond simple sparring, as there were facilities for the latter in the city itself, all with the supervision of academy staff.
Instead, this place was not only far from the city, but thanks to its remote location, the academy staff was conspicuous by its absence.
After politely asking the receptionist for directions, who by the way was incredibly reluctant to do so but ended up doing it anyway, Faith then began her search.
Unfortunately, at this point, despite having followed the directions to the letter, she had not arrived at the place she wanted, what was more, she had absolutely no idea where she was.
*Crack*
"..."
Suddenly, Faith distinctly heard the sound of a small branch giving way under the weight of something.
Immediately, she turned her head towards the source of the noise.
And it was at that moment... that she saw it.
Behind her, only a couple of meters away, stood a tall, sickly pale white figure, easily reaching 10 feet tall.
Its appearance was humanoid, but it was not human at all, with a body so thin that every bone could be seen, disproportionately long arms reaching down to below its knees, which ended in incredibly sharp claws.
As for the face of this figure, it was wearing as a helmet the skull of an unknown animal that greatly resembled a deer but was not that of a deer.
Finally, the worst part of all, was that this figure was staring, with its dead and empty eyes, at Faith.
The esper then remembered the chills she had felt the moment she took her first step into the forest.
She had thought it was because of her fear of the dark, but at this moment, she knew why it was... because this creature had been watching her!
*BAM!*
Immediately afterwards, a loud sound could be heard in the forest surroundings.
